


Meet the Grandparents

by BlackthorneBabe



Category: Gallagher Girls Series - Ally Carter
Genre: F/M, Fluff, accept that you have a family now, for now, meeting grandma and grandpa morgan is inevitable zachary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:06:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackthorneBabe/pseuds/BlackthorneBabe
Summary: Meet the parents is nothing compared to meet the grandparents. Let alone stay at their house for part of the summer with your girlfriend.Cammie invites Zach to visit her grandparents ranch following graduation so they can have some normal time together and they can properly meet her boyfriend. Of course, Zach would do literally anything to make her happy so he agrees. This is not met without teasing from the adults as well as the occasional hiccup.Pretty fluffy unless I have or am given any ideas to change that.
Relationships: Rachel Morgan/Joseph "Joe" Solomon, Zachary Goode/Cameron Morgan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	Meet the Grandparents

It almost seemed like something out of a dream. The bright, sunny day, the sea of smiling faces, the sound of the birds and leaves mingling in with the talking.  


And the goodbyes.  


Everyone looked so happy. Zach stood in the midst of it all, observing more than participating. He marveled at the girls talking a mile a minute; the way girls seemed to do so effortlessly. There were some things that he- and Joe, it seemed from where he was, several feet away- would never understand. Cammie was talking and laughing with her best friends. She was glowing, the sunshine bouncing off her face and the blonde hair coming out from under the cap. And she had more than earned these moments to celebrate crossing the finish line.  


The picture taking was new to him. He'd taken a few pictures of them, some group shots of the girls that they had demanded (not that he wouldn't have done it anyway Rebecca, learn to ask for things nicely), a few shots of Cam and her mom, and the two of them and Joe. He was perfectly comfortable being Cammie's photographer when she grabbed his hand and pulled him in. His arms instinctively went around her. She pointed him towards her mother who told them both to smile. While the smiling was easy, Cammie's was infectious, Zach had expected them to maybe take one or two. He wasn't prepared for all that came next. There were some of him picking her up, her on his back, hell, she got the girls to come over for one of all five of them. Just when he thought she'd exhausted all the possibilities, Cammie took her cap off and put it on his head, giggling the whole time. Zach got a potentially bad idea at that point and, despite Rachel and Joe being right there, he dipped her. If Cammie had any concerns she didn't show them, just pulled him closer and pressed her lips against his.  


Once she was back on her feet Zach carefully replaced her cap. He saw Bex roll her eyes at him over Cammie's shoulder. At this point he felt it had to be over so he started to step away, give the new graduates their moment back. But, once again, Cammie's hand found his. "We need one of me, Zach, mom, and Joe!" She said.  
Everyone readily agreed and Zach found himself reeling internally but hiding it for the camera. Standing with them felt like a family photo. Or at least what Zach assumed that would be like. And he couldn’t help feeling like he didn’t belong in it.

“You doing alright?”  


Zach glanced next to him and saw Joe had come up beside him. He took a deep breath and nodded. “It’s a big day.”  


Joe smiled knowingly. Zach knew that he was already well aware of their surroundings. But there was always two ways of looking at something. At least for them. “A lot, huh?”  


Joe had that habit of reading Zach entirely too well. The latter shoved his hands in his pockets. “Just more than I’m used to.” He decided on.  


“Well of course,” Joe agreed. When Zach raised an eyebrow at him, he went on. “The last time you saw any of them as teenage girls was your sophomore year. There were moments, here and there, of course but you all had to grow up fast.”  
Zach looked at the ground. Joe was right. He didn’t know the first thing about being a normal teenager. And now they were going off to be adults. For the first time he felt strangely un-equipped.  


“This,” Joe went on and Zach looked up to see him gesturing to the scene before them. “The pictures and the laughing and the talking too loud- this isn’t the spies in them. It’s the girls. The girls who have seen each other everyday for years now and have no idea when they’ll see each other again. Who they'll be then. What they will have done. And how much they'll never be able to tell each other again.”  


The pictures made even more sense now. It wasn’t just for fun. It was because those and the memories would be all they had. Until they saw each other again. Zach felt his chest tighten in a way it never had before. He imagined, beneath Cammie’s smile, she felt similarly.  


“It’s crazy,” she was saying, to her roommates. “Like I knew we weren’t going to be seeing each other everyday anymore but now that we’re actually here…I can’t believe it.”  


Liz was already tearing up. Bex turned to her. “Stop that. If you start we’re all gonna start and then no one's gonna stop.” The four of them laughed together but it didn’t do any good at stopping Bex’s prediction. Soon enough they were all in a group hug.  


“Expect a lot of that.” Joe whispered to Zach. Zach's brow furrowed and he looked at Joe like he was crazy. “The crying," he elaborated. "Your mission, which you have already chosen to accept, will be to comfort her.”  


Zach rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the help, Joe." He gave the older man a shove on the shoulder. "Really appreciate it.”  


Joe nodded at him and started to walk off. “Oh,” he doubled back, regaining Zach’s attention. “Actually I have a question for you. From Rachel.”

“We’re gonna keep in touch, okay!” Macey insisted. All the girls giggled, wiping their eyes. “Anytime we can get together for holidays, birthdays, anything! We are.”  


“And,” Bex added. “We’ve still got the wedding.”  


All their faces brightened at that as they looked at Cammie. “Of course! There’ll be plenty to help with. I’ll need you guys.” She smiled sadly. “But when do I not?”  


That earned another big group hug and a reminder from Macey that she was going to “wedding plan the crap out of her moms special day”.  


Eventually the girls managed to say their goodbyes. Cammie sighed and took her graduation cap off. She let the tassel fall through her fingers, considering how everything led to this one, seemingly small item. For the first time all day she was left alone with her thoughts.  


Or not, she thought as a pair of arms wrapped around her waist. She leaned back into his chest, letting Zach support her weight. “I was wondering where you went off to.”  


“Oh, I wanted to give you and the girls some space." He rested his chin on the top of her head. "I did say goodbye to all of them though.”  


“Good. I’d hate to have to get Madame Dabney on you.” She mused. They stood like that for a while, enjoying the stillness, before Cammie turned in his arms to face him. 

“You okay?” Zach must have looked surprised because she went on. “You seemed a little weird. I guess there was a lot going on. I wanted to ask earlier but I got distracted.” 

While she spoke she put her arms around his neck and absently ran her fingers through his hair.  


Of course she noticed. She was a Gallagher girl after all. “I didn’t expect to be in your pictures.” He admitted.  


Cammie’s hands stilled. She tilted her head in confusion as she asked, “Why wouldn't you have been? You’re my boyfriend.”  


“I know. And it made me happy. I just didn’t expect it.” He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m from a family photo kind of family, Gallagher Girl.”  


Cammie thought for a second, her mouth twitching to the side. “Well, you are now.” She decided.  


Zach felt his breath catch. That was going to take some getting used to. But she was so certain. And when she smiled at him he knew she was about to change the subject and distract him. And he let her.  


“Also are you gonna keep calling me that?”  


“What? Gallagher Girl?” She nodded and Zach couldn’t help but smirk back at her. “Of course. You know what they say. You can take the girl out of Gallagher but you can’t take the Gallagher out of the girl.” He pulled her in closer. “Especially not this girl.”  


Cammie laughed. “You may be right.”  


“Oh, I’m definitely right.” He lifted the end of the cord around her neck up to her face and tickled her nose with it, causing her to bury her head in his chest for cover. He laughed and he couldn't see it but it made Cammie smile against him. She just wrapped her arms tighter around him and stayed put. Zach glanced around, looking for her mom. Or Joe. They all seemed conveniently absent. Zach took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how this conversation with his girlfriend was about to go. “I talked to Joe.”  


Cammie nodded and looked up at him. “As you often do.” Her smile faltered when Zach's features remained unreadable. “What did you talk about? Is everything okay?”  


“Yeah, um,” he quickly reassured her. He really liked seeing Cammie happy and didn’t want that to go away so soon. “He told me he was talking to your mom. And she had been talking to your grandparents-“  


“Oh, yeah.” Cammie cut him off. Her smile grew a bit more mischievous. “Sorry. I probably should have mentioned that. It was my idea after all.”  


Zach’s eyes widened as he looked at her. That only caused her to full on smirk at him. He should have known. “You…want me-,”  


“To come with me for part of the summer?” She filled in. “Yeah. I do.”  


“I was going for ‘you want me to meet your grandparents’?” Zach didn’t even hide the surprise in his voice.  


“Well, of course I do. I want to spend time with you-without people trying to kill us. And I want them to meet you.” Cammie was so relaxed while she spoke. She was so sure. Meanwhile, Zach was envying the balls he’d had at sixteen to brazenly flirt with Cammie while under the roof of her mother, the headmistress’ school. His head was still reeling when Cammie placed her hand on his chest. “I think they’ll like you,” she went on. “And it’s…the closest you’ll ever come to actually meeting my dad.”  


That thought had already crossed Zach’s mind. That was what had him terrified. But he also knew he had to do it for her. For them. “Whatever you want, Gallagher Girl.” He agreed, smiling at her as genuinely as he could.  


It seemed to work because her earlier smile slid right back into place. “Great! I’m heading there today while you leave with, um, Townsend. But then everything should be set up in a few weeks!” Cammie didn’t know what they were calling Townsend at that point. She had intended to just follow Zach’s lead but he’d made that difficult by basically never talking about his father. But that was a bridge he'd have to rebuild without her.  


He took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. “Can’t wait.”


End file.
